


Escape Room

by withcameraandpen



Category: Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-21
Updated: 2018-12-21
Packaged: 2019-09-23 23:39:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17089904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/withcameraandpen/pseuds/withcameraandpen
Summary: Katherine loves escape rooms. Jack hates them, but he'll do anything to make his Ace smile.





	Escape Room

It was ten minutes to five in the afternoon, Katherine was bouncing on the balls of her feet, and Jack was in a cold sweat.

Jack hated escape rooms. The puzzles, the fierce teamwork, and the primal, high-stakes instinct to fight for survival were exactly the opposite of what he considered a good time.

Katherine, though, adored them. Escape rooms were the perfect match for his girlfriend’s racing mind and near-insatiable hunger for challenges.

_Open space an’ fresh air,_ he had said to her once, when Katherine’s sister suggested doing one for her birthday. _That’s what I need. Not a combination lock standin’ in the way t’ the bathroom._

She had laughed, told him there were usually emergency keys for such an occasion, and dropped the subject. But today, he was here all because of her, ready to get locked in a room and think their way out. 

Katherine glanced up at the clock again, forehead creasing. “It’s almost five o’clock,” she said. “David and Charlie might cost us our reservation if they don’t turn up soon.” She tapped her foot on the carpeted floor. 

“We ain’t gonna lose it,” he replied tersely. “’Member? As long as both o’ us are here, we’re gonna get in the room.”

And right on cue, Jack’s phone buzzed in his pocket. Katherine’s dinged at the same time, with the same message in the group chat shared between the four of them: _Flat tire. Can’t make it._

“Shit,” muttered Katherine, raking a hand through her hair. Already she was calling them, pacing the lobby of the escape room facility. Jack only caught one half of their conversation, but what he heard didn’t sound good. 

“We can come get you. You already had a spare tire? That’s good. And I don’t hear any traffic, so you’re not on the highway.” She shot Jack a look. “You’re sure you want us to go ahead? We can reschedule for another day. It’s fine.”

She listened for a long moment, and then sighed. “If you’re okay with it.” She hung up and explained, “They’re telling us to go ahead.”

She brushed past him and went to the clerk at the desk. “Excuse me, our friends are running late. If we go into the room now, would you be able to let them in when they arrive later?”

The clerk, a weedy young man no older than fifteen, said, “Uh, sure, I think so.”

But she didn’t seem thrilled by the news. “Thanks.”

“What’s up?” Jack walked over to her. “C’mon, it’s just about our time. We might as well go in, right?”

She pursed her lips. “We booked a difficult room, babe, remember? And we’re going in without half our team.” Her hand ran down his arm. “I know how you get in close quarters. Your mental health isn’t worth all this.” 

“Listen.” He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and drew her away from the young clerk. This was Katherine’s day, and he wasn’t gonna let his nerves ruin it. And he knew that the best thing to compensate for nerves was overconfidence. “I is gonna be just fine, okay? I can handle an hour locked in a room wit’ you.” He smirked. “Better than I coulda hoped for, really. We can cover up the cam’ras, and I’ll put ya up on th’ desk—if there is one, o’ course…”

“You’re ridiculous,” she replied with a smile and a blush. “You’re sure you can handle it?”

“I’ll handle anythin’ ya want me to, sugar.”

“Okay!” said the clerk loudly. “Your room is right this way.”

 

One nervous reminder not to cover the cameras later, Jack and Katherine were standing alone in the living room of a serial killer. 

Jack was already quietly taking inventory of the room: a curio cabinet, a desk, a rug, a mirror. The door was behind him, and the emergency key was in the little case mounted on the wall beside it. A bookcase in the corner, a spotlight on the ceiling. Walls that seemed to keep closing in.

Katherine was already tearing through the room, ripping the rug away to reveal an evil-looking circular symbol painted on the floor. “I knew it! There’s always something under the rug. Jack, why don’t you poke around and see if there’s anything on the computer? Actually—”

She raced over to the desk and wiggled the mouse. The computer monitor lit up on a login screen, asking for a password. “Never mind. We have to find the password first.”

“I’ll look for it,” Jack offered, though his girlfriend was already hurtling away She whipped through the room like a tornado, turning over everything not nailed down and flinging open everything on a hinge. Jack did his best to participate, but by the time he could take a look at a clue, Katherine had already examined it, evaluated it, and moved on. Did she even draw a breath for the first ten minutes of their hour?

I’m sure this comes off,” she muttered, tugging on the mirror on the wall. “It’s got to. We just have to figure out how.”

“Take it easy,” he replied. “Unless you’re tryin’ t’ break the room apart.”

She gave up on the mirror and moved back to the symbol on the floor. “Isn’t that what you promised outside?” she said with a smirk. “Putting me up on that desk and doing what you liked with me?”

He balked. “I’d do anything fo’ you, babe, but ain’t bringin’ the walls down a li’l rough?”

“For you, maybe.” She winked at him, and he remembered in a flash just why he fell in love with her. 

The cypher on the floor yielded nothing, nor did the artifacts in the bookcase. They moved a few steps forward with the contents of the desk: a crossword Katherine decoded in a flash that revealed the computer password, which then led to a spot-the-difference puzzle that Jack flew through quick.

“That’s it!” cheered Katherine, grabbing the notepad and pen on the desk. “Seven differences. I bet that’s a number in a code!”

“Yeah, maybe.” He glanced back at the symbol on the ground. “Wait, do we need another password or anythin’?”

She bit her lip. Her eyes danced back and forth, checking the rolodex in her mind for all the clues they uncovered. “Yes. Yes! There’s a lettered combination lock on the curio cabinet.”

He pointed at the symbol. “Do ya think countin’ every seventh letter’ll give us the combo?”

Her eyes lit up. “That has to be it!”

Quickly they counted every seventh letter around the circle and then raced to the lock, plugged in the combination, and let out a cheer. “It worked! Look at you!”

“Ya don’t gotta sound so surprised,” he said as she threw open the doors to the cabinet. “I weren’t gonna letcha do all th’ work.”

“Hmm. Maybe not _let_ me.”

“What?”

Katherine paused, turning a Venetian mask over in her hands. Jack saw something that rarely happened in all his time with Katherine: he saw her thinking grind to a halt. “Sugar, what are ya talkin’ about?”

“Well…” She turned back to him, wringing the mask in her fists. “Escape rooms really require that you enjoy the experience. That you want to be here.”

He threw his arms out to the side. “I is here! Why do ya think I don’t wanna be here?”

“Because of your track record,” she said gently. “Really, Jack, I’m so grateful you’re here, but you’re not enjoying this. So I’m getting us out as quickly as we can. And…well, with how many I’ve done before, it’s getting easier for me to solve them alone.”

He rolled his eyes. “Katherine, one o’ these days, you’re gonna have t’ rely on ya senses.”

“What?”

“Look at me.” He took her hands, thumb running over the mask. “Do I look like I wanna leave?”

She bit her lip and her eyes darted back and forth again, but this time, she was looking for a foothold out of the grave she’d dug. “No. Well, you look nervous.”

“I’m nervous because our time’s tickin’ away an’ we ain’t solved nothin’ yet,” he soothed. “Now, slow down an’ enjoy the room, okay? Thank ya for lookin’ out for me, but I is doin’ just fine.”

“Okay. I’m sorry.” She kissed him and then pulled away, putting on the beaded mask and looking at the spotlight shining on the wall. “I knew it! There’s a symbol on the wall, Jack. Can you get that notepad and pen? Actually—”

She took off the mask, handed it to him, and moved toward the desk. “You’ll be able to draw it better.” 

Together they flew through the room, and Jack started to understand the appeal. The rush of working things out, the thrill of chasing their treasure—and as time went on and they got closer to the key, his anxiety eased up. Just look at Katherine go! He suspected that she could break down the door with sheer force, if called upon. He may very well be the only thing stopping her.

Eventually their time caught up with them, though, and they were using all their clues to work out the code to the keypad beside the mirror. “Zero-seven-one-eight!” exclaimed Katherine, glancing up at their timer. “It’s that, I’m sure of it!”

He beamed at her. Overconfidence covered up nerves like a charm. “Go ‘head an’ plug it in.”

She crossed the room to the keypad and punched in the code. He saw her smirk in the mirror. “Seven eighteen. That’s the date we met. July eighteenth.”

“Funny.”

A moment later, Katherine gasped as the mirror slid aside on the wall, revealing a shelf behind it. On the shelf sat a skeleton key and a velvet box.

“We got the key! Wait, what’s this?” She picked up the box, opening it up to reveal—nothing. An empty velvet cushion. “Jack, I think there’s a puzzle we missed.”

“Nah, I got the other piece right here.”

She turned around and found him on one knee, holding a gorgeous engagement ring out to her. She stared at him, stunned, and said faintly, “Davey and Charlie were never coming, were they?”

“’Fraid not.” He swallowed hard, and the nerves came roaring back. “I had a whole speech ‘bout how you’re my missin’ piece, how you complete me—”

“Yes.” Katherine nodded, her eyes misty. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”

In the flurry of joy between Jack slipping the ring on her finger and their throwing their arms around each other, their timer had buzzed, signaling the end of their hour. They hadn’t escaped, though Jack wouldn’t mind being stuck in this room with Katherine forever. Well, that was going to be it, wasn’t it? Him and Katherine forever, a force of nature who needed a gentle reminder every now and then. All that would change was the room.

The clerk opened up the door and grinned at them when he saw the ring on Katherine’s finger. “Congratulations!”

Her jaw dropped. “You were in on it, too?”

“Ya think it was a coincidence the final code was our anniversary?” Jack shook the clerk’s hand. “Thanks a million, bud. Thought you was gonna crack in th’ waitin’ room.”

“I thought _you_ were gonna crack!” He gestured for them to exit the room. “Would you like your photo taken?”

“Of course,” gushed Katherine. “I will say, though, that we did pretty much escape, right? We found the key, and we would have gotten out if, uh, if other things hadn’t come up.”

They walked out of the room, hand in hand. “I think they’ll give it to us, Ace. Now let’s get our first engagement photos done, huh?”

“They better not be our only ones,” she said, with a smile as bright as the sun.


End file.
